Web Master
Just like the previous elections in Ghana, the defeat of any incumbent political party is always measured by its popularity.
However, the popularity of any political party is not just the mere fact that the majority of the people(Ghanaians) know it but how successful it has been able to implement policies that benefit the people.
The Nana Addo Dankwa led government has initiated a series of policies that were promised before the 2016 elections. The most popular are; free senior high school, one village one dam, Tertiary education bill, one district one factory, One Ghana card, Planting for food and exports, and others.
These policy implementations are the backbone of accessing the popularity of the government. Unfortunately, the implications of these policies implemented have generally failed Ghanaians expectations. Hence, the signs that suggest the people of Ghana are silently unhappy about this government and will vote against the New Patriotic Party in the 2020 December 7 elections.
1. Teachers are unhappy about all educational reforms (Free SHS and Public University Bill).
Teachers and potential teachers at all levels of education are the largest workforce in our country as well as the population. When they are not happy with your governance, you have a greater chance of losing in elections. Mahama’s administration can be our reference. His initiative to cancel teacher trainee allowance in other to train more of them in the teaching profession did not go down the throat of the students which made his government unpopular.
However, the Akuffo-Addo led government has forcefully implemented the free senior high school which resulted in an unprecedented number of sacked headteachers and staff who in one way or the other were objects of the policy implementation methods especially the overcrowding issues.
Let me reiterate that no teachers were against the implementation of the free SHS policy but the overcrowding forced some headteachers to adopt other practices to provide accommodation in which cash transactions were involved especially PTA dues that were contrary to the Free SHS policy.
As a result, the headteachers were sacked with immediate effect. It didn’t end there, the government adopted a Rambo style tactics that was seeking and ready to sack any teacher that say any negative word against the policy. Even if you complain about chalk we use to write on board, you will leave the teaching profession. The second cycle teachers learned to remain silent which the anger is still burning inside them.
The government succeeded in silencing them and now moved down to the basic schools to cancel Any form of fees, be it PTA, exam,s, or extra class. Meanwhile, the government refused to pay for exams fees and resorted to collapsing our termly exams into yearly promotional exams. And some basic schools resorted to writing exams on board for pupils. Academic freedom was suppressed to a level that has never been seen in Ghana.
When we thought it was over, they implemented the public university bill. This bill will approve powers to the government to even scrutinize lecturers’ topics of research. What is happening in UEW will be legalized and apply in all the public universities. The lectures in general are unhappy about this policy for a reason that it will suppress academic freedom.
The implications of the tertiary education bill, free senior high school, and order education policy initiatives have angered the teachers’ population which is talked about in every corner of this counter and will surely voice this frustration on the ballot paper. Hence, Nana Addo will not be their choice.
2. Corruption
One of the widely, spoken policy initiatives by the then opposition, the new patriotic party was to tackle corruption head-on. In fact, the Ford Saga was a piece of tilapia for Bawumia to share with Nana Addo to taunt Mahama even though the car was registered as the presidency car but parked in his private residency. This however was not tenable since he hasn’t vacated his position where we can conclude he is guilty. Anyway, I am not the right person to decide whether he was corrupt or not.
However, the number of corruption cases that have been exposed under the glare watch of Nana Addo suggests that he has no morality to speak about corruption. To count a few, the cash for seat Saga, BOST contaminated oil saga, Galamsey promotion under the presidency exposed by an investigative journalist, flying excavators, Nyantakyi having the President in his pocket, missing Tricycle and many others.
The issue of corruption under this administration is not what is making the government unpopular but the way the administration tackles it. Instead of the Nana Addo allowing the state investigative Bodies to do their work, he is always the first person to clear them of any wrongdoing. Sometimes he will say ” there is nothing(corruption) there”. They simply failed in tackling corruption and is one of the signs that they will loose this 2020 elections just like what happened to Mahama because of corruption perception.
3. Pushing for a new register
It is surprising that the government that came into power with almost one million vote margin is adamant to change the voters’ register that was used to elect them into power. Regardless of what is in the register, the actual performance of the current government will be a recipe to win the next election unless otherwise. If not, the decision to push for a new register at all costs even in this Coronavirus pandemic can not be understood.
In modern democracies, when a government knows very well they have failed or performed poorly if not the worst, they usually seek to massage the Electoral practices to favor them. But the most popular approach this current government opted for is to disenfranchise the majority of the ordinary Ghanaians so that the anger they burn inside themselves will not be expressed in the ballot paper.
So if you see any current government following the path to disenfranchise majority ordinary citizens who normally don’t possess passports, it is a sign that the government has performed generally poorly and is most likely to be voted against in masses.
4. Suppressing Media and Speech freedom
The Crackdown on media space and media personalities is all-time high then we ever witness this fourth republic. Considering the media space, we have witnessed an unprecedented closure of very critical opposing Media houses which has created its system in which all other media houses will seek to place them in order to survive. Indeed a recipe of a culture of silence.
The attack on media personalities and journalists is something that cannot be described with words. The popular freelancer investigative journalist (Anas Aremeyaw Anas) and his crew have been victims of this Crackdown on freedom of speech.
One of his crew, Ahmed Suale may God bless his soul was brutally gunned down by hired hitmen. Up to date, the government is reluctant to push for investigations. The clampdown on freedom of speech fuel by this pandemic can actually cause even blogger some trouble so it is better for my guts to keep the displeasure.
As I said, the anger is still building in our bodies and the only way to free ourselves from this “mistaken” is to vote them out, however, this is likely not to come true if the government succeeds in the disenfranchisement of many ordinary citizens like me. But this does not cover the signs that this NPP government may loose due to the low popularity of the policies implemented.
